The last 6 months has made me really ponder what does health mean? What markers should we actually use to determine what is healthy and how I or other people think of themselves. I see so many people after weight loss, who truly do not like themselves or who they are, calling themselves fat or terrible, and they hate themselves (I’ve had worse words, but you get the idea)
What frustrates me is these people aren’t actually fat or ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’. But they have been told by society that they are.
So I want to discuss what I believe health is and I will give myself as an example from me now and me 4 years ago.
I had my latest round of blood tests last week. Everything was within normal range, cholesterol, liver function, thyroid, a number of vitamins and minerals – all was within recommended range.
From my most recent DEXA scan; my visceral fat was 30 (which need to be <100), my body fat percentage sits around 27-29%, which is in the healthy range.
My diet:
I eat veggies, fruit and lean cuts of meat and yoghurt - I can’t live without yoghurt, it is its own food group to me :) oh and coffee. I eat chocolate pretty regularly, and I like to drink alcohol with my friends.
Exercise
I generally train Olympic Weightlifting 5 times a week. Sometimes it is 4, sometimes 6, it just depends upon my work load or lack of sleep. Right now I can honestly say though I am the strongest I have ever been and I truly love my training.
If I go back 4 years ago; I was significantly leaner ~ 18% BF; but a few of blood markers where high. I was exhausted; I struggled to get through my work day, and I had a very disordered eating pattern. I would eat meals around my co-workers, so they wouldn’t expect anything, but didn’t eat when I was on my own, or I would just have a shake.
I struggled in social settings, if people saw what I was eating they would ask – “is that paleo Amie” “I can’t believe you are eating that’.
I exercised for 2-3 hours a day and had a love-hate relationship with my training. I was lighter, so I could move pretty quickly, but regardless training was inconsistent and I felt weak most of the time. I truly hated myself for not being able to do the work I needed to do because I had no energy.
My life then was all because I believed, if you didn’t have abs or a flat stomach you weren’t healthy. If you had cellulite, could you really call yourself lean? I struggled with the thought that if I was a Dietitian, people expected you to ‘look that part’. This is still something I struggle with now. To this day; I am still compared to other dietitians, but then I think about my life now and my quality of life, and I know I am in the best position for me.
The one thing that prompted all of this thought and frustration was following a visit with doctor about my physiological tremor. Everyone has a tremor, but mine is more pronounced, actually quite pronounced and is a daily occurrence for me – actually right now as I sit here and type my hands are shaking. I now realise, it increases in severity depending upon my stress level.
It is my warning sign it is time to drop my work load back and not work a ridiculous amount of hours a week; which if anyone knows me that is actually really hard to do.
Many of the clients I see have some kind of disordered eating pattern whether they realise or not. I’m tired of seeing people misinformed and pushing their body far beyond what it is capable of; just to be like someone they’ve seen on Instagram, or someone they train in the gym with. It truly breaks my heart.
So my final thought is
‘If your body could talk – what would it say to you? And if you gave up chasing for an ideal body, what else would you have room for in your life?’
Amie
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